Jay Gatsby
| Jay Gatsby | |
|---|---|
| The Great Gatsby character | |
| Created by | Francis Scott Fitzgerald |
| Portrayed by |
|
| Information | |
| Full name | James "Jimmy" Gatz (real name) |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation |
|
| Family | Henry C. Gatz (father) |
| Significant other(s) |
Daisy Fay Buchanan Nick Carraway |
| Nationality | American |
Daisy Fay Buchanan
Jay Gatsby (born James "Jimmy" Gatz) is the title character of the 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby. The character, a wealthy man and the owner of a luxurious mansion where extravagant parties are often hosted, is described by the novel's narrator, Nick Carraway, as being "the single most hopeful person I've ever met".
James Gatz hailed from rural North Dakota, and was born into a poor farmer family. He attended St. Olaf College but dropped out a few weeks into his first semester because he hated supporting himself by working as a janitor.
After dropping out, he went to Lake Superior, where he met copper tycoon Dan Cody in Little Girl Bay. Cody became Gatz's mentor and invited him to join his ten-year yacht trek. At seventeen, Gatz changed his name to Jay Gatsby and, over the next five years, learned the ways of the wealthy. Cody left Gatsby $25,000 in his will, but after his death, Cody's mistress cheated Gatsby out of the inheritance.
In 1917, during his training for the infantry in World War I, 27-year-old Gatsby met and fell in love with 18-year-old debutante Daisy Fay, who was everything Gatsby was not: rich and from a patrician Louisville family.
During the war, Gatsby reached the rank of Major in the U.S. 16th Infantry Regiment, and was decorated for valor for his participation in the Marne and the Argonne. After the war (as he also tells Nick Carraway years later), he briefly attended Trinity College, Oxford. While there, he received a letter from Daisy, telling him that she had married the wealthy Tom Buchanan. Gatsby then decided to commit his life to becoming a man of the kind of wealth and stature he believed would win Daisy's love.
Gatsby returned home and settled in New York, which was being transformed by the Jazz Age. Gatsby took advantage of Prohibition by making a fortune from bootlegging and built connections with various gangsters such as Meyer Wolfsheim (who Gatsby claims is "the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919").
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